Currently, among diverse portable terminal designs, a slide type portable terminal device has been increasingly used. The slide type portable terminal is configured to have two housings. One of the housings slides over the other housing, thereby opening/closing the portable terminal device.
One related slide type portable terminal device comprises a first housing with a display portion and a speaker portion, and a second housing with a display portion slidably mounted on the first housing. A slide mechanism is installed between the first housing and the second housing for slidably opening and closing the first housing. The second housing slides in a longitudinal direction along the first housing thereby covering or exposing the upper surface of the first housing. The slide mechanism described in the above has a guide groove formed at lateral surfaces of the second housing in a longitudinal direction, and a guide rail formed at an edge of the first housing and inserted into the guide groove to be moved in a longitudinal direction.
The guide groove and the guide rail are opened when a user manually pushes the first housing in a forward longitudinal direction and are closed when the user manually pushes the first housing in a rearward longitudinal direction.
However, in the above-described slide type portable terminal device, the user is inconvenienced by having to manually open and close the guide groove and the guide rail by pushing the second housing in a forward longitudinal direction or a rearward longitudinal direction.
What is needed, therefore, is a slide mechanism which overcomes the above-described shortcomings.